


Once Upon a Peasant

by dotheunthinkable



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Because even the Great Kageyama can smile, Child!AU, Hinata and Kageyama are really supposed to be cute in this, Hinata darling I guess you were just meant to be a messy child, Like Bakageyama is so out of character I cringed at myself, M/M, My little ray of sunshine, OOC, This has nothing to do with volleyball Im so sorry, Uselessly Tagging, fairy tale!au, how do you even tag, pottery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 16:51:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2199507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dotheunthinkable/pseuds/dotheunthinkable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hinata Shouyou hates his life as a prince, and Kageyama Tobio the potter's son would like nothing more than to be one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon a Peasant

**Author's Note:**

> My first ever not smut/fluff/yaoi bit AND to top it off, I've forcefully barged myself into this fandom like its nobody's business. Please excuse the mess. Also. I've seem to have acquired the habit of stepping into fandoms without warning and regret it right after because I linger. I've reflected on it. ORZ

Prince Shouyou did not like his new life. Ever since the death of his parents, King and Queen Hinata, in that unfortunate swan boating incident, he’d been sent to live with his distant relatives, King and Queen Ukai.  
Word had it, their son, Prince Keishin, was cavorting with a commoner – a more common than common _Takeda_ , can you _believe_ that – and refused to find a nice princess to settle down with to continue the family line. Thus, King and Queen Ukai were thinking of making Hinata heir.  
They’d had high hopes for the young prince, because he was known throughout the seven lands of Karasuno as a "genius" who was very serious about his studies, bound to become a sage and astute ruler.  
  
What they didn’t know was that Hinata also hated being a prince.  
It had been okay at home, Prince Shouyou thought gloomily, because mother and father had let him play in the mud, had let him play all sorts of ball games, and had let him indulge his artistic muses through finger painting and mucky clay art, but Queen Ukai was not having a bar of that.  
“Those are the past times of _commoners_ ,” She’d said in her snobbish, fluty voice, “and no heir of mine is going to partake in such twaddle.”  
  
Instead she wanted Prince Shouyou to learn to bow properly, to wave with his hand at just the right angle, how to waltz, how to be a proper _prince_.  
If he wanted to indulge his artistic side, he was left with nothing but embroidery, and he _hated_ embroidery. It was so slow, so restrictive, so… girly. It was all about flowers and putting your needle in the right place. There was no room for creativity, no room for the artist’s voice to come through.  
  
Prince Shouyou found himself sinking into depression after a mere week of living in Castle du Ukai. It was boring, it was stuffy, it was just too perfect and orderly. The only interesting happenings were when Prince Keishin would come home with wine stains on his clothes, ‘ _smelling_ of commoner’ and Hinata got to watch his second great aunt thrice removed, or however it was that he was related to the Ukai family, go crazy about what he was doing to the family reputation.  
  
Prince Shouyou spent a lot of time in his room, studying, and staring out the window over the grand moat, to the town on the other side.  
He was jealous, jealous of the young, common boys who played on the river banks, wrestling in the mud, catching frogs from the moat; jealous of the potter’s young apprentice, whose hands grew messy as he shaped fine vases and dishes on the pottery wheel; jealous of the street painters who drew portraits and caricatures of passing people to earn a couple of silver coins.  
  
Just once, just once, he wanted to walk those cobbled streets, to breathe in the scent of freshly ground spices outside the market, to play on the muddy banks with other boys his own age. But the closest he got was when he went out in the carriage with the King and Queen, trying to wave with his hand at an angle he could never get _quite_ right.  
  
Then one morning, when he was up in his room trying to learn the steps to the waltz for tomorrow night’s grand ball, Queen Ukai had come up to see him.  
“The King and I are going to the neighboring city of Datekougyou to visit Duke Aone, and won’t be back until nightfall. You are to stay here until you get the steps to the dance right.”  
And she had left him.  
Hinata sighed. He’d never get the steps right by tomorrow night, no matter how hard he practiced. He went to his window and looked out over the moat, watching the carriage with the king and queen roll away, into the cobblestone streets, out of sight.  
His eyes naturally drifted to the boys playing on the bank and he wished with all his heart that he could join them.  
  
Then he had an idea: the king and queen wouldn’t be back until dark. He had all the time in the world to sneak out of the palace, to do whatever he wanted, and as long as he made it back by dusk, no one would ever have to know he was gone.  
The young Prince quickly concocted a plan, tying together his mass of bed sheets, and attaching them to the firm, stone pillars adorning his window. He threw the sheets down, and yes, they were just long enough for him to reach the ground.  
He stripped off into his underclothes, a white singlet shirt, and white shorts, in preparation for the swim across the moat.  
  
Were he like his childhood friend, Prince Kenma, he would’ve been too scared to climb from such a height, but Hinata was determined and stubborn, and he climbed out his window and down his cotton sheet ladder, resolutely not looking down until his feet were firmly against the ground. Fresh, little tufts of grass tickled his feet, and he dug his feet in just to feel the mud squelch between his toes.  
Prince Shouyou raised his eyes and looked over to the other side of the water, saw the laughing, screaming children chasing, grappling with each other. The water was green and murky and probably cold, but, he thought, it would be worth it.  
  
It felt a little slimy against his skin as he sunk into it, but warmer than he’d anticipated. There was no way to get into the castle from this side, and so there were no guards overlooking it, and Hinata was able to swim across unnoticed. He pulled himself up onto the bank on the other side, clothes sopping wet and heart bursting with delight.  
The town children didn’t notice that he was a stranger in their midst, and soon Hinata was playing rough and tumble with a pair of kids named Kousuke and Akira, and catching tadpoles which were quickly purloined from him by an older boy named Kentarou who had a mean tongue but a warm smile.  
  
He played on the river bank under the hot sun until his clothes dried stiff against his body, and then when all the other kids disappeared at lunch time, he wandered into the town, bustling people of all types, packed to bursting with markets and stalls selling fresh foods. He wandered past the pottery store, and stopped to look in the back of the workshop, staring as the potter’s young light-haired apprentice – skin unusually fair-toned even from hours of labour in the sunshine, not like Hinata’s naturally sunkissed complexion – as he fashioned clay into delicate shapes on the wheel.  
  
When he stopped, he happened to look up right into Hinata’s face, smiling at the awe he must have seen in it and waving him over.  
Hinata froze, but then approached timidly.  
  
“Oh. I thought you were Kageyama.” He said and laughed. “But you’re not. Were you watching?”  
  
Hinata nodded, feeling a little timid.  
  
“It looks fun.” He said, and the other boy beamed.  
  
“Would you like some clay?” He asked, and Hinata nodded shyly, accepting the sticky, wet lump that was placed in his hands. He kneaded it between his fingers, remembering the clay models he’d loved making before the death of his parents.  
  
“Thank you.” He said, and the boy smiled, a wide, sunny smile with crooked bottom teeth.  
  
They both worked in silence, smoothed over by the hum of the pottery wheel. Hinata was so engrossed that he didn’t notice when the potter’s apprentice stopped his wheel, didn’t feel his eyes on him until he spoke.  
  
“You’re good at that.” He said, gesturing towards the small clay frog that Hinata had formed out of the original lump he’d given him. “Where did you learn?”  
  
Hinata felt a mixture of pride and embarrassment swelling up inside him at the compliment.  
  
“I used to make models for fun.” He said, and the other boy lifted his eyebrows in interest.  
  
“You should talk to the master.” He told Hinata, “You’re talented. I bet he’d take you on.”  
  
The idea appealed to Hinata, but he knew that it would never happen. He tried to think of a kind way to reject the offer, when a voice from the back of the workshop startled him.  
  
“Suga-chan! It’s lunch time. Go wash that nasty muck off your hands, okay?”  
  
“Yes, Kageyama.” The apprentice said obediently. He then turned to Hinata, smiling crooked and warm. “That’s Kageyama Tobio, the master’s son.” He explained. “The master wanted to train him in the art of pottery, but he doesn’t like getting his hands dirty. All his hopes are on me now.”  
  
Hinata watched the slight, graceful boy flounce out of the workshop, presumably back into the house.  
  
“You should have lunch with us, the master’s wife always makes more than enough for everyone.”  
  
He led Hinata to the water supply without giving him a chance to reject the invitation, chattering the whole time about this and that, and how it would be so nice to have another friend close to his age to work at the pottery wheel with. Hinata listened to his whimsical ideas, wishing they could become a reality, but knowing that if he went missing from the castle, there would be all sorts of trouble.  
  
Sugawara Koushi, as it turned out the apprentice’s name was, introduced him at the dining table as his new friend, and the prince simply offered them the name, “Shouyou”. The master and his wife, a pair of elder folks with ruddy red faces and toothy grins, made him feel quite welcome, and as Hinata watched Kageyama sit delicately down at the table, he couldn’t help but wonder how they’d managed to produce such a refined, prissy child.  
  
Kageyama picked at his meal, not complaining, but it was easy to tell he thought it was boring, standard fare, while Hinata thought that the crusty bread and stew were the best things he’d ever tasted. He and Suga squabbled over the last of the plum pudding before agreeing to share it, while Kageyama reclined in his chair, buffing his fingernails and sitting with dainty, royal posture.  
  
Afterwards, Hinata helped clean up, something he’d never done before, and then the master sent the three of them out to play, telling Suga to take a break and spend time with his new friend.  
He and Suga got muddy together, while Kageyama stood back, looking downright unimpressed and a little disgusted.  
  
“Don’t you like playing?” Hinata asked, incredulous, and Kageyama smiled at him, almost patronizingly.  
  
“Of course I like to play.” He said. “But getting covered in mud is no fun. I much prefer croquet to wrestling in the mud. I’m not a pig.”  
  
Hinata snorted. He hated croquet, but sometimes on Sundays he was forced to play it out on the sprawling castle lawn with the children of visiting royal families. Getting dirty and scratched up was much more fun.  
  
The evening wore on, and soon Suga had to go back to the workshop, and Hinata was left with prissy Kageyama, who refused to move from his safe, dry spot on a tree stump. Hinata thought he was terribly ungrateful. If he could’ve spent every day working with clay and playing by the riverbed, eating home cooked meals of fresh bread and pudding, he would’ve been ever so glad. Kageyama, however, looked like he thought he’d been dealt a bad hand in life.  
  
“I bet you can waltz too.” Hinata muttered to himself, and Kageyama looked at him strangely.  
  
“Of course I can. Waltzing is easy.” He said. “If you want to become a refined gentleman, you need to know how to waltz.”  
  
Hinata started to rolled his eyes, but then an idea came to him.  
  
“Could you teach me?” He asked. “I need to learn by tomorrow night. There’s a terribly boring royal ball on that I need to attend, and if I can’t waltz by then, mother will scold me.”  
  
Kageyama looked at him with eyes that had grown round in surprise.  
  
“A royal ball? You?” He sounded like he couldn’t think of anyone more unsuited to be attending a royal ball, but Hinata nodded.  
  
“Could you teach me?” He asked, then realised that bribery would probably work much better with someone like Kageyama. “I’ll give you a pair of my dancing shoes.”  
  
Kageyama’s face changed, lips curving into a semi-friendly smile, and he stood, gingerly patting Hinata on a clean spot on his back.  
  
“Well.” He said. “I suppose that can be arranged. I’m not practicing with you if you’re in those muddy clothes though.”  
  
Hinata frowned. “This is all I have.” He argued, but Kageyama remained firm. Hinata thought for a moment, then brightened. “I know. Why don’t you come back with me to the castle? Could you handle swimming across the moat?”  
  
He saw Kageyama’s nose wrinkle, but eventually the idea of being inside a real castle overrode his disgust at swimming in a cold, algae filled moat. He complained the entire way across, and the entire way up the ladder of sheets, but once he was inside Hinata’s room, he became much more agreeable.  
  
“It’s so fancy.” He said, in an awed voice. “You’re so lucky.”  
  
Hinata liked Kageyama’s rustic, cluttered home a lot better, but didn’t tell him so.  
  
“I’m all wet though.” Kageyama went on, frowning at his damp outfit. “Give me something to change into.”  
  
Hinata’s brow creased at the demanding tone, but he couldn’t really reprimand someone who was doing him a favour, and let Kageyama strip off his wet clothes, and offered him one of his suits to dress into. Kageyama took it from him with childish glee, gushing over the fine stitching and high class material.  
Once he had it on, even Hinata had to admit that he looked perfectly handsome in it.  
Kageyama, Hinata decided, was far better suited to this sort of life than he was.  
  
“May I have my dancing shoes now?” Kageyama asked, the most politely he’d spoken to Hinata since they’d met. Hinata obliged, but just as Kageyama was stepping into them, he heard footsteps echoing down the hall outside his room.  
His face drained of colour. He’d recognise the sound of that footfall anywhere.  
  
“The queen is coming.” He hissed. “I can’t let her see my dirty clothes, she’ll kill me!”  
He looked around frantically, then dived under the bed just in time before the door opened.  
  
“Shouyou.” Queen Ukai’s shoes appeared within his view. “I see you have your dancing shoes on. Have you been practicing?”  
  
Hinata’s eyebrows rose in surprise, and he had to fight not to make an indignant noise. How could the queen possibly have mistaken snotty Kageyama for _him_?  
  
“I have,” Came Kageyama’s voice, cheerful and chirpy. “Would you like to see?”  
  
Hinata watched as Kageyama’s feet moved around the room in a graceful, effortless gait. The queen gasped and clapped.  
  
“Shouyou, I’m impressed! I’m not sure how you managed to improve so wonderfully over the past day, but I have to say that I’m very pleased. All the girls at the ball will be dying to dance with you.”  
  
Kageyama laughed cutely and thanked the queen, and Hinata cringed with embarrassment. He crawled out from under the bed when she left, and fixed Kageyama with a disapproving frown.  
  
“Thanks a lot. I’ll never be able to dance like that at the ball. Now everyone is going to be disappointed, and…”  
  
He stopped, and looked closely at Kageyama in the suit and dance shoes, his pretty face and elegant poise, his charming smile.  
Kageyama looked like he was made to be a prince. Kageyama fit into this world the same way Hinata had so easily fit into his world.  
  
“How about…” Hinata began carefully, “You go to the ball instead of me? You could be a prince and I could be a potter’s apprentice. You have the kind of life I’ve always wanted.”  
  
“You want to switch places with me?” Kageyama’s eyes looked bright, hopeful. “For how long?”  
  
“Forever.”  
  
At first Hinata thought Kageyama was going to laugh at the idea, tell him there was no way it would work, no way his parents wouldn’t come looking for him and bring him back home, but instead he smiled, wide and regal.  
  
“I’d love to.” He said, and leant forward to kiss Hinata daintily on the lips, as though wishing him luck. Kageyama, Hinata thought, was a little strange, but he was too distracted by the surge of happiness in his chest and the taste of freedom on his tongue.  
Kageyama waved to him as he climbed down the sheets for the last time, and Hinata thought that they way he did so was awfully reminiscent of the queen.  
He waved back up to him once he reached the bottom, a final goodbye, and Kageyama watched as Hinata swam across the moat to the other side, not once looking back.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel so uncomfortable marching on the toes of the already well-established writers in this fandom. Hahaha, no, not really. Hope you enjoyed. Leave me some kudos and a nice comment or two. The more the merrier. Sorry for the grammar mistakes that appear here and there. I'll be back again. This one was a quickie.
> 
> Read, Review, and Move on!


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